THE ARCADIANS

Evening Star, Issue 19019, 14 August 1925, Page 6

THE ARCADIANS

A TURBULENT INTERLUDE CIGARETTE MAKER ALLEGES ASSAULT At tho Police Court this morning Alexander Livingstone was charged with having assaulted Isaac Moms on July 12. The defendant, who did not appear, was represented by Mr Barrowclough. Counsel said that bo wanted to hear the evidence before he entered hia plea. The complainant, an old man, stated that lie was a cigarette maker dispensing his wares from a shop in the Arcade. The affray, explained witness, happened on July 12, when defendant strolled into his shop and as a sort of preliminary to more serious operations commenced to use “ most dreadful language.” “He then hit me,” continued witness, “ hit me across the counter.” In case the court was under a misapprehension as t o whether “ across the counter ” referred to his anatomy or tho simp, witness explained further that ho had received the fell blow in “mo stomach,”, and witness proceeded to indicate with the hand the modus operand! adopted by defendant in his attempt to land him on the solar plexus. “He hit me so much,” he continued with violent intakes of breath, “ that when I breathe I can hardly breathe, and I can't sit up straight and I can’t stand up straight.” Explaining what happened immediately after defendant had connected, witness said: “1 yells out: ‘Thief! Thief I Murder! Murder!’ and jumps on to tho winder and hollers out, and then people come in and asked: 1 What vou want to shout for?’ A lady comes In, and the man, ho struck her. too. He don’t know what he doing. I told him go, as I won’t speak to him, but lie pulls at me ring and tries to take it off me. My hands, they bleed like a sheep, end mo made no cigarettes for close throe weeks. He squeezed my hand that badly that it do bleed terribly!” Mr Barrowelougli (soothingly) ; You are not a friend of his? Witness (with toruadic fury): “What! Are you my friend? A friend; why, he’s a pig! They got hold of mo ” Mr Barrowelougli: Why “they’"? Was there somebody with defendant? Witness (indignantly): “ No, there was only him. You weren’t there, wt?»o you?” Witness later on admitted that there was another man in the shop. Mr Barrowelougli: Well, don’t you bo impertinent. You are always calling out for the police, aren’t you? queried counsel. Witness; “Yes. There are always a lot of loafing scoundrels hanging about. I ask you—no, I won't. I suppose you’ll charge me half a guinea for that.” Mr Barrowelougli: Noj I'll charge you more than that. “If a man forty-five years in the country,” commenced witness with great vehemence, but then floundered into incoherence. Later on ho explained that defendant had “ hit me m the stomach and paralysed mi.” Questioned by Sub-inspector O’H'alloran, complainant stated that the same man had called in to see him eighteen months ago. On that occasion lie came armed with a walking stick with a round handle and “ drove me all over the _ Arcade.” Asked to describe his bellicose visitor, witness said that ho “had a false leg.” Miss Towler said that she had a business in the Arcade. On the day of the trouble she heal'd someone calling for help. She went to defendant’s shop, and just got there in time to see the man making preparations to strike Morris. She went to the old man’s rescue and pleaded with defendant not to hit him. The defendant then turned on her and tried to punch her, but she was saved by tho intervention of a man, who told her would-be assailant “ not to strike a woman.” She caught hold of defendant by the lapel of his coat and pulled him down. Mr Barrowelougli: Do you expect the court to believe that? Herbert Victor Pale said that he 1 had “heard the discussion” in Morris’s shop. Ho was “ called in,” and “ expected to listen to two arguments all at once.” The witness, however, did not relish attempting such an intellectual feat, so he told Morris to ho calm and suggested to the defendant that lie should got “what he wanted” and then go away. Neither party took his advice, however. Complainant then went to tho window and railed for the police, and commenced to yell; “Thief! Thief!” Defendant started to go away, but Morris’s calls brought him hack. He did not- see any of the blows struck, and he was in the shop before the last, witness. Hardly a month went by hut the complainant knocked on his window for the police. “He gets very excited,” added witness. Constable Milne said that defendant in a written statement admitted that he had been in tho shoo and that Miss Towler had caught hold of him. Ho did not hit complainant, however. Tho defendant also stated that he had had three or four beers on tbe day of tho affair.

Tho Magistrate said that _ he would not deal with the case until the defendant put in an appearance. If necessary, a warrant would be issued. Kir liarrowcloiigh said that the man was a returned soldier and was an inmafe of (he Pleasant Valley Sanatorium. He bad not attempted to evade the court. The case was adionrned until August 21.